The testing of integrated software is a critical step in the software development lifecycle. The objective of the integration testing is to verify and validate the flow of activities through external interfaces between systems within the software solution, the hardware and the configuration thereof, and to prevent malfunction of the software when in use.
User acceptance testing (UAT), also called beta testing, and/or end user testing, is a phase of software development in which the software is tested in the “real world” (e.g. at a customer premises, etc.) by a professional testing team, accompanied by an intended audience or a business representative. The goal of user acceptance testing is to assess whether a system can support day-to-day business and user scenarios and ensure the system is sufficient and correct for business usage.
During the acceptance testing phase of a project, all vendors must deliver software as their part of a wider solution for a customer's needs. In addition to testing to verify each function in each system is properly working, the acceptance testing phase includes a set of tests which is intended to certify that interfaces between systems are properly working as small chains between two systems, or as larger chains between several systems, which move data transactions between them for a single purpose. This test, accompanied with functional tests, proves system readiness to a wider end-to-end test, which combines both functional aspects with a full integration.
Integration testing is a preliminary stage of acceptance testing, which is done at the point vendors are ready to deliver their software to acceptance tests (e.g. system tests were performed, installation on site was accomplished, and basic connectivity tests were performed). The purpose of the integration tests is to make the solution mature for end-to-end testing by cleaning up defects coming from the communication between chains of modules in the solution delivered by different vendors. A chain can be defined as a single interface between two applications or a longer interface flow in which information is passed through several interfaces one after the other before it reaches its destination.
Performing an efficient integration test faces two main challenges. The first main challenge is removing dependencies from functional aspects which still did not pass certification. The second main challenge is aligning all vendors to a single plan and properly preparing to delay options at each vendor's delivery, to be able to still utilize the environment and the software which was delivered, to the best benefit of the project.
Additional challenges on the road to a successful integration test include generating an ability to receive inputs for the integration design from all vendors and properly utilizing the integrated environment resources, as well as the challenge of performing a maximum number of tests while allowing a maximum number of critical customer activities to have availability of the unique resources included in the end-to-end integrated environment.
There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.